Giovanni Legorano

Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal.

Giovanni Legorano is based in The Wall Street Journal's Milan bureau. He covers the Italian financial services sector for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. Before starting his career in journalism he has been a teacher and management consultant. A native of Treviso, Italy, Mr. Legorano graduated from the University of Venice and holds a degree in Economics and Business Studies. He also holds a postgraduate degree in International and European Relations from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @glegorano

The European Central Bank decided to embark in a large program of asset purchases because of deteriorating expectations on inflation over a number of years, ECB Executive Board Member Benoit Coeure said on Thursday.

UniCredit and Intesa, Italy’s two largest banks, posted strong net profits, leaving further behind much of the country’s banking system two weeks after a review of Europe’s biggest lenders found Italian banks were the worst capitalized.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA’s board approved the launch of a capital increase of up to €2.5 billion ($3.14 billion) as it plans to plug entirely a capital shortfall identified from a health check by European regulatory authorities.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has obtained the commitment of at least six investment banks to back a capital increase of 2.5 billion euros with which it plans to cover the capital shortfall identified by European regulators.